The Challenge

As an infrastructure training specialist, Cabling Science were already seeing a good level of site traffic: 9,000 organic visitors per month. However, the challenge was ‘how to turn this traffic into an increase in conversions' - specifically, how to grow relevant conversions for a new awareness stage eBook around Passive Infrastructure Training.’ The answer? HubSpot Lead Flows.

Prior to adopting HubSpot Lead Flows (and HubSpot as a whole), Cabling Science were promoting this content via a number of channels: blog CTAs, social and paid.

While this achieved some initial success (though not as good as Lead Flows became), it was hard to attribute/track all conversions, and track relevant visitors/leads throughout the funnel.

The challenge was ‘How to turn organic traffic into an increase in relevant conversions' - specifically, for a new awareness stage eBook. The answer? HubSpot Lead Flows

2. Cabling Science needed to gain wider clarity over marketing as a whole.

Tied to the need to increase conversions (and monitoring throughout the funnel), Cabling Science needed a way to improve conversion tracking. Prior to this campaign, Cabling Science were not using HubSpot, which created challenges in tracking and reporting throughout the wider marketing campaign (including conversions).

Ultimately, if Strategic IC could increase the number of relevant conversions with targeted LeadFlows - and gain wider control over tracking/attributing activity throughout the funnel with a full HubSpot subscription, we would grow opportunities to inform, nurture, and grow awareness with the right audience.

If Strategic IC could increase the number of relevant conversions with targeted Lead Flows, we would grow opportunities to inform, nurture, and grow awareness with the right audience.

The Solution

Inbound marketing using HubSpot

Though Cabling Science were already actively conducting inbound activity, at Strategic IC we knew we needed to close the loop if we were to firstly improve conversions on our content asset - and secondly grow success throughout the funnel.

While the priority challenge was (as above) growing conversion and improving accountability (addressed with HubSpot LeadFlows), as inbound is of course a full funnel strategy, we made sure our activity was integrated within HubSpot.

Using the HubSpot Ads Add On to conduct targeted paid ad activity (on FaceBook and LinkedIn - and also via AdWords) to ensure that visitors who were interested in Passive Infrastructure Training (the topic of our content offer) came to the site.

Posting regular social updates via the HubSpot social tool to promote content and attract (and monitor) more relevant visitors.

Convert

Improving relevant organic conversion was the main challenge in this particular campaign. Introducing HubSpot Lead Flows was a key solution:

Initially relevant HubSpot Lead Flow Widgets were placed across the CIA blog and wider site to ensure that relevant visitors to both would reach the HubSpot Landing Page and access the content. We trialled a range of widget styles (such as slide-in boxes, pop-up boxes and dropdown banners) to see which type of widget worked the best.

After some testing we found that exit intent widgets worked best for both parts of the site. That wasn’t the case from the beginning however as initially we tried ‘exit intent’ on the site, and ‘slide in’ on blog.

Initially Lead Flows were placed site-wide. However after the first month we removed Lead Flows from all pages to prevent fatigue; as Cabling Science are a training specialist they experience a lot of regular and return visitors (students).

While it is possible to stop Lead Flows for repeat visitors for an interval of few weeks, after this time frame, they return - which may irritate regular repeat visitors. However, as the Lead Flows were performing well we did not remove them completely - instead they are now active across select site and blog pages only.

Related:

HubSpot Lists were also used at this stage to assess the quality of leads converted through the Lead Flow widgets. This campaign was very precise - targeting telecom personas from within c.20 key accounts.

Close & Delight

As mentioned above, for this campaign, closing relevant leads was not an immediate goal as Cabling Science has a longer sales cycle. Instead the focus was on growing those relevant conversions, to boost brand awareness and expand the nurture pool with highly relevant contacts.

However, now that Cabling Science are using HubSpot, features like the CRM, HubSpot workflows (which we’re using for additional nurture campaigns) and HubSpot Dashboard, are and will be instrumental in monitoring and nurturing the leads generated with this campaign. These are also key tools to help us in optimising performance weekly/monthly and at every funnel stage to ensure campaign success.

At a wider level, we are also using the HubSpot Sales Navigator integration to conduct follow up activities on LinkedIn. This way, it’s possible to monitor and review progress with leads and opportunities directly within HubSpot.

Results

Timescales

What growth was achieved in what timeframe?

Cabling Science became a HubSpot customer in January 2017.

We first implemented Lead Flows in April 2017 - the campaign is still active at the time of writing (July 2017).

This case study contains data from across a 3 month period from April-July 2017.

Lead Flow results: in that timeframe we saw:

50% of the customers that came through this marketing campaign activity came from HubSpot Lead Flows.

Conversion rate on LeadFlows for the first few months after launch was particularly high; c. 16%. As of July 2017 it is at 6.8%.

Considering specific site pages with active Lead Flows, on the website we saw c.26k views, and 1700+ contacts - with another 198 contacts through the blog, bringing total contacts gathered close to 2000 (see below). Lead Flows were active across the homepage, about page, case studies and a few other pages.

In this 3 month timeframe, through LeadFlows we saw 1238 leads, 21 MQLs, and 19 customers (see below). Note that this campaign was very ABM focussed (targeting c.20 telecom accounts) meaning that the 21 MQLs generated were very precise - more so than usual. In a typical persona-focussed campaign many of the 1238 leads generated (we estimate 80%) would also have been classed as MQLs.

Conversion rate on Lead Flows for the first few months after launch was particularly high; c. 16%. As of July 2017 it is at 6.8%.

As a comparison and indicator of growth pre-HubSpot, when the campaign was using landing pages promoted by regular CTAs across the site, we saw c.421 contacts across an 8 month period. HubSpot LeadFlows helped us to more than double this number in under half the time.

Considering the impact on the wider campaign:

Of course HubSpot adoption meant more than just Lead Flow implementation. Other key metrics to note from the wider campaign include:

Total contacts: 1961 contacts since April 2017

MQLs: In an average campaign c.80% of the leads generated would have been classed as MQLs. But, due to the specific account focus of this campaign, 27 MQLs resulted. In actuality, this raised awareness of a new challenge: the client is generating a good volume of leads but lacks the capacity to assess and qualify them.

Opportunities: The client’s focus for the quarter was to increase awareness within specific accounts (as well as with the wider audience). 3% of total conversions came from these target accounts, increasing opportunities

Impact and future planning

Regarding the wider impact to the business, brand awareness has increased with target accounts and it is now much easier to profile website visitors. This was previously difficult due to not having HubSpot in place.

Regarding the next steps, firstly, this campaign will continue to be optimised to achieve best results - reviewing Lead Flow copy, design, colours and type (such as exit intent, slide in box etc). Secondly, we will continue to build content resources on the site in order to improve lead flow optimisation with personalisation - to offer up more relevant, buyer stage appropriate, personalised content for individual contacts and visitors. This will require us to conduct a content audit to map content to specific Lead Flow pages on the blog.

Ultimately, pre-campaign and pre-HubSpot, the client was limited in their ability to make the most of organic traffic to boost (and track) conversions. Now, with Lead Flows and a wider HubSpot strategy, they are seeing great results.